Gone VegDiary of an omnivore who saw the light and stopped eating animals

For the love of cheese!

I was in the middle of composing a post about our dinner last night (which included cheese) when I read this on SuperVegan. It’s all about how the only thing that there aren’t decent vegan substitutes for is cheese. Well, the author writes about Daiya, which is apparently a really great vegan cheese substitute and I plan on trying it as soon as I can get my hands on some. Specifically, I want to try the cheddar blend because that is the kind of cheese I would miss the most.

I want to go on a little rant about vegan cheese for a second though, because the issues I have with it aren’t really addressed anywhere.

My problem with vegan cheese isn’t that it doesn’t taste like cheese. It’s that it tastes like the wrong kind of cheese. It seems that vegan cheese makers aspire for their products to look and taste like the milk-based stuff Kraft peddles pre-shredded in the dairy aisle. I understand the desire to market based on familiarity but come on!

I’m a pretty sophisticated eater. I would never eat Kraft. The cheese I do eat is artisanal and tastes that way. Why not make vegan cheese that tastes this way, too? Stop appealing to lowest common denominator! (I’m not saying Daiya tastes that way, I haven’t tried it yet but that is usually the situation with vegan cheese).